


The Guy Who Hangs Out in the Gateroom

by inbarati



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-15
Updated: 2010-04-15
Packaged: 2017-10-08 23:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inbarati/pseuds/inbarati
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's More to Chuck than meets the eye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Guy Who Hangs Out in the Gateroom

"I heard he was Special Forces." Captain Lohman said.

"I heard he worked for the Secret Service." Private Morrison replied.

"I say he's CIA. He's shifty like that." Private Pierson added.

"Who's shifty?" Chuck Campbell, gate technician extraordinaire, asked as he walked into the weekly poker game carrying a bag of Doritos. No one on Atlantis had seen a nacho chip in months, but Chuck, well they all knew Chuck had ways.

Morrison grinned. "Pierson says you are. She says you're ex-CIA. I say you're Secret Service. Got to have an in with the Pres to have an unopened bag of Doritos when the rest of us are down to trading socks that don't have holes."

"Guys, how many times do I have to tell you, I'm just a gate tech. A second-tier one at that. Dr. McKay would only let me near the gate because Grodin wasn't there to do it anymore." Chuck blushed, and rubbed the back of his head.

The room was filled with incredulous silence.

Lohman broke the silence, quietly. "Dude, we all saw you take out like six Delmurians when they tried to bomb the Gateroom. What'd you have for a weapon? A goddamn pencil. If that's gate tech training, I went into the wrong damn field."

"And when that entity was changing gate addresses?" Pierson added, "You noticed before anyone else. I mean, yeah, McKay was the one who fixed it, but if you hadn't noticed, we'd have had four teams walking through to vacuum that day."

Morrison chimed in, "And we know you're counting cards when we play. What we don't know is why you let us win so often."

"All right, all right. I'll tell you guys, but only because we're friends, okay? What gets said in the poker closet stays in the poker closet."

"Promise!" the other three sang out in unison, and Chuck began to tell his story.

"It started in grade school, actually. I have what's called an eidetic memory. It means that I remember what I see for a really long time, perfectly. It made school pretty easy for me, and I stated looking for other things to do. Sports never really interested me, but I did some karate at the Y, and some boxing, and did pretty well at that. Won a few trophies, silly stuff, nothing world changing.

Then, in eighth grade, there was a shooting at my school. The poor guy was out of his head on some drug, and I was the first one he saw. He shot me, but I still managed to disarm him. I got my first commendation from the Prime Minister for that.

I was laid up for a while, I had to have surgery, and physical therapy. So I started reading. At first it was the usual sci-fi stuff you read when you're that age, but I got interested in how some of it would work if it were real. Physics kind of grabbed me.

Fast forward a few years, and I'm in grad school, working on a doctorate, and I've won a couple of martial arts tournaments, nothing huge, aikido, jiu-jutsu, jogo do pau. I'm coming home from work on night when I get shoved into a black van.

That's when everything changed. They called themselves the Trust, and they were trying to forcibly recruit me. I permanently incapacitated twenty-five men, and killed four. I met the strike force sent in to rescue me on the way out. Apparently the SGC had had their eye on me. I never went back to school officially.

Things have been interesting since then. I helped stop a gou'ald invasion. I've seen Daniel Jackson Ascend. I've met aliens from over a hundred worlds. But mostly I'm just the guy who hangs out in the Gateroom in case things get hairy."

There was a long, expressive silence. Morrison was the first to speak. "Dude," was all he was able to get out.

Chuck shifted uncomfortably. "Guys, I'm the same Chuck you've been playing poker with since we walked through the Gate."

Pierson grinned and slugged him in the shoulder. "Maybe you should stop bogarting the chips, then." She replied.

Chuck grinned and tossed the Doritos on the table. Maybe Pierson would like to go to dinner later in the week. He was pretty sure he had some chocolate, somewhere…


End file.
